Hatib bin Abu Balta wrote a letter to the people of Mecca, and Allah disclosed this to His Prophet. So the Prophet ﷺ sent Ali and Zubayr after the letter, and they caught up with a woman on a camel. They extracted the letter from one of her braids, just as the Prophet of Allah ﷺ had told them.He then summoned Hatib and asked, "Hatib, did you write this letter?"He replied, "Yes, Messenger of Allah."The Prophet asked, "What led you to do this?"Hatib answered, "By Allah, I am sincere toward Allah and His Messenger, but I was a stranger among the people of Mecca, while my family lived among them. I feared for them, so I wrote a letter that would not harm Allah and His Messenger in the least, hoping it might bring some benefit to my family."Umar said, "I drew my sword and said, 'Messenger of Allah, let me deal with Hatib, for he has committed disbelief, and let me strike off his head.'"The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "Son of Khattab, how do you know? Perhaps Allah has looked upon this group from the people of Badr and said, 'Do as you wish, for I have already forgiven you.'"
كتب حاطب بن أبي بلتعة كتابا إلى أهل مكة، فأطلع الله عليه نبيه فبعث عليا والزبير في أثر الكتاب فأدركا امرأة على بعير فاستخرجاه من قرن من قرونها على ما قال لهم نبي الله ﷺ، فأرسل إلى حاطب فقال: يا حاطب أنت كتبت هذا الكتاب؟ قال: نعم يا رسول الله قال: ما حملك على ذلك؟ قال: أما والله إني لناصح الله ورسوله ولكن كنت غريبا في أهل مكة، وكان أهلي بين ظهرانيهم فخفت عليهم، فكتبت كتابا لا يضر الله ورسوله شيئا وعسى أن تكون فيه منفعة لأهلي، فقال عمر: فاخترطت سيفي فقلت: يا رسول الله مكني من حاطب فإنه قد كفر فأضرب عنقه، فقال رسول الله ﷺ: يا ابن الخطاب! وما يدريك لعل الله اطلع على هذه العصابة من أهل بدر، فقال: اعملوا ما شئتم فقد غفرت لكم.
Narrated by Bazzar in Kashf Astar (2695) and Hakim (4/77), both from the hadith of Umar bin Yunus bin Qasim Yamami, who said, Ikrima bin Ammar narrated to us, who said, Abu Zumayl said, Ibn Abbas said, I heard Umar bin Khattab, and he mentioned it.Hakim said, "This is a hadith sahih according to the criteria of Muslim, but the two of them did not narrate it in this form. They only agreed on the hadith of Abdullah bin Abu Rafi, from Ali, 'The Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent me, Abu Marthad, and Zubayr to a garden,' with wording other than this."I say, its isnad is hasan because of Abu Zumayl, who is Simak bin Walid Hanafi Yamami, for he is among the narrators of Muslim, and his hadith is hasan.Haythami said in Majma (9/304), "Abu Yaala narrated it in Kabir, and Bazzar, and Tabarani in Awsat, in a shortened form, and their narrators are the narrators of the Sahih."Bazzar said, "The story of Hatib has been narrated through more than one route."